Nintendo went all out for Mario’s 35th anniversary, with several re-releases and a remix. The re-releases I’m referring to include Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which bundles Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. Then, there’s Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, which brings one of the Wii U’s most beloved titles to Nintendo Switch later this year. The remix, of course, is Super Mario Bros. 35, a hectic battle-royale-style take on the original NES Super Mario Bros. game.
Then there’s whatever the heck Mario Kart Live Home Circuit is supposed to be. But yeah, I’m not thinking too hard about that one.
With so much Mario goodness all around us, it’s maybe easy to forget that The Legend of Zelda is turning 35 next year. But let’s not forget. Let’s make it abundantly clear that we want Nintendo to give Link the red carpet treatment next year, with bundled classics coming to the Switch.
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but almost all of Nintendo’s major first-party Wii U titles have been ported to the Switch, with two notable exceptions being The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Both of these titles got fancy (and beautiful) remasters for the Wii U, and they’re two of my favorite Legend of Zelda games. (Unfortunately, my Wii U stopped working before I was able to get too deep into my replay of Twilight Princess, but that’s a story for another time.) I would absolutely love to see those two games show up on Switch so I can play them again.
And since Skyward Sword for Switch recently showed up in an Amazon UK listing, it’s quite possible we’ll see that one coming to Nintendo’s current console soon. It only makes sense that they would save that for Zelda’s big year.
In fact, part of me wonders if Nintendo had initially planned on releasing Skyward Sword as a standalone remake, then changed their minds after the Super Mario 3D All-Stars bundle became such a perfect template for a Zelda release. Perhaps they reconsidered the listing, planning on adding it to a future bundle?
Now, I’m getting ahead of myself here. There’s no official word on the Skyward Sword thing, so everything I wrote in the previous paragraph is speculation. But a guy can dream, right?
And since we’re entering dream territory, it would actually be great to somehow sneak Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask into that collection as well (though this is really reaching for the stars). Or perhaps there will be two different collections, one with Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and The Wind Waker, and the other with Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.
Yet, we shouldn’t forget that the Breath of the Wild sequel might be out next year. It’s possible that Nintendo just slaps a “35th Anniversary” sticker on the box and maybe creates a bundle that contains a set of commemorative gold JoyCons. (If memory serves, that’s pretty close to what they did for the initial Skyward Sword release, which happened to fall on the 25th anniversary of the franchise).
So we should probably be wary of setting our expectations too high. Still, the three games I mentioned in the title — The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword — would be such incredible additions to the Switch’s already incredible lineup that it’s hard to not get excited, even if that excitement might be all for naught.
